- A flower meadow
- Overcast
- soft
- Single Shot
- Single Focus Point
- Sigma Art 135mm f/1.8mm
- Serious
- Rule of thirds
- Quiet
- Posed
- negative space
- Adobe Lightroom CC
- Natural Light
- Natural
- midday
- lower thirds
- Cinebloom 20%
- Canon 5d miii
- calm
- Autofocus
- Adobe Photoshop
- united kingdom
The story behind the image
Directions
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
I asked my model to stand side on to me, pop her foot (I will have been doing this mirrored to her so that she could see), firstly to look at baby and then to look up straight at me.
What did you say?
Look down, make sure that you are comfortable and then on 3 look up at me… 1,2,3…’
Tone of Directions
Quiet, Calm
Composition
I wanted to ensure that I could capture a beautiful nude side profile of her body whilst feeding and also have baby in a similar position to reflect her as the mother, in her baby whilst also showing a protective element and contrast in their sizes. I also wanted a degree of negative space surrounding them to give a feel of the quiet, calm and natural surroundings.
Compositional Rules
Rule of Thirds
framing
Lower ThirdsNegative Space
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
This was shot at f/1.8 and was relatively easy as my model were still. I wanted the background as out of focus as possibly to really make them stand out, hence the wide aperture.
Focus Mode
Single Shot
Focus POints
Single Focus Point
Focused on
My model's eyes
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/4000 @ f/1.8 ISO100 WB-Auto
The way the EXIF is written out follows the common photographic method (with the inclusion of White Balance at the end). Here it is broken down:
Shutter Speed @ Aperture ISO White Balance.
Light & Weather
It was very soft and made softer by my diffusion filter, so the only problem was making sure that the image wasn’t too hazy. I wasn’t overly concerned by this however because this is easily corrected in Lightroom.
Light Type
Natural Light
Light Quality
Soft
Time of day
Midday
Weather
Overcast
Editing Workflow
How did you edit this image?
Firstly, I straightened it (I can never shoot straight!) so the the horizon was correct, then I applied the preset. I increased the highlights, lowered the shadows, and increased the dehaze slider.
I then took it into Photoshop and selected the sky and, using a mask, added a gradient blur to the sky to eliminate the texture/clouds. I then added a dark gradient from the top down.
Back in Lightroom, I added Meridian x Twyla Jones, Celestial stars and a moon, making sure that the moon was located where the light source/sun was.
Finally, I added some heavy grain.
Editing Software
Adobe Lightroom CC, Adobe Photoshop
Preset Used
Challenges
Ensuring that the moon looked real, that my model was comfortable and that the shoot was private.
Solutions
1) Making sure that the faux elements were not the main focus of the image and that the lighting remained correct.
2) Going at her pace for the images and nudity. Checking that she was comfortable at all times and before the shoots ensuring that her expectations were managed and that she was aware that it would be a nude/suggestive nude shoot.
3)Scounting the location beforehand, going at a low traffic time and off of the path.
Location
Location Name
Gloucestershire
Location aDDRESS
The Cotswolds, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom
Loation Type
A flower meadow
Country
United Kingdom
Have an idea of the final image in your head before shooting it.
